


RWBY Against the Binary

by Anonymous



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Crack, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Amnesia, Cat/Human Hybrids, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Fantasy, Gen, Gender Dysphoria, Genderqueer Character, Inspired by Skyrim, Nonbinary Character, Skyrim References, Trans, Trans Character, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:35:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22118740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: The first sensation Ruby felt immediately felt was pain.Gasping she sat up quickly and then immediately regretted her decision. Her head pounded as worse than she had ever felt before. Her eyes shut against her will as tears escaped her eyes as if to rectify the unknown pain that shoots through her body. She distantly feels the bumps of wooden wheels of the wagon scrap against the tough dirt road beneath her body.Gasping for breath she deeply inhaled the warm still air. The dewy air practically choked her as her throat tore apart in each brick of air she swallowed. She steadied herself with her hands to allow her dizziness to quickly subside.“Hey, you. You're finally awake."
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9
Collections: Anonymous





	RWBY Against the Binary

**Author's Note:**

> FAQ:  
> Did you grammar check this?  
> no  
> Have you ever watched RWBY?  
> no  
> How much do you know about RWBY?  
> I've seen the Netflix preview clips but not much beyond that  
> What inspired you to write this?  
> Spite

The first sensation Ruby felt immediately felt was pain. 

Gasping she sat up quickly and then immediately regretted her decision. Her head pounded as worse than she had ever felt before. Her eyes shut against her will as tears escaped her eyes as if to rectify the unknown pain that shoots through her body. She distantly feels the bumps of wooden wheels of the wagon scrap against the tough dirt road beneath her body. 

Gasping for breath she deeply inhaled the warm still air. The dewy air practically choked her as her throat tore apart in each brick of air she swallowed. She steadied herself with her hands to allow her dizziness to quickly subside. 

“Hey, you. You're finally awake." 

Slowly, she blinked the spots out of her vision to look towards the voice calling her. 

A blonde girl was leaning down with her hands on her knees and stared sympathetically at her with concern flashing in her eyes. 

"You were trying to cross the border, right?" she insisted. 

Ruby blinked wildly. 

"I'm sorry what?" 

"Yes, you walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there." Yellow haired girl gestures airily towards a girl with dark hair and cat ears sitting in the corner of the wagon. "The Border, or perhaps the Binary if you prefer." 

Dark haired girl scowls and hisses at them both, her hair spiking out just as cat when someone throws a cucumber behind them when they are not looking. Not once uncrossing her arms from across her chest she irritably crosses her legs and sniffs before spitting biting words. 

“Damn you Academy Folk! The Binary was fine until you came along. Everything had a place in pink and blue. If you guys haven’t come rocking the boat, I could have stolen that god damn Ritual and no one would have even noticed it was gone! And have run away with my guns in tow but no, you all just had to be there too!” 

“May I remind you that you are from Academy too.” 

“Fuck you!” 

“Another time maybe.” 

“Y-you! You’re awful!” 

“I will be however you want me.” 

“You! Aghhh!” 

The blonde winked at Ruby and silently mouthed to her ‘she’s like this all the time’ with a playful roll of her eyes. Behind her, the other’s fumes of frustrations could probably kill anything within a five-inch distance from her. 

Ruby had no words for the two. By this point the ache had mostly left her, but the confusion remained to fog her eyes with bewilderment. Their words brought no enlightenment to their situation from her point of view and her. It was clear they had not been traveling together but, they had all been found in relatively the same place according to the other two. 

“...I don’t believe I quite understand. What... exactly we you guys trying to steal exactly?” She asked cautiously to the others. Wariness permeated through her body at exposing her confusion to complete strangers. Grasping the floor of the wagon she felt her scythe within the scattered hay causing a relieve some of her stress. At least she could try to use this to protect herself. 

"Are you stupid? I literally just said a ritual. Your mother must have dropped you as a child on top of that nasty bruise on your forehead." The Neko spit out with a scoff. "You can't even use that stupid weapon you've got in your death grip. These shackles have some enchantment to stop anyone with violent intent from committing any damaging actions." 

"Indeed," pipped up a fourth person in the cart. All three of them shifted back on guard. Arising from the hay piles near the from of the cart a body sat up. She had her white hair pulled into a ponytail and a misty look in her eyes. She glanced over at her fellow prisoners by turning her head in a perfect ninety degree angle, her smile never wavering. "She has tried to punch me exactly two times, raised her voice sixteen times, and breathed exactly one-" 

"Shut up before I-!" The feline girl lunged at the other, effectively cutting her off before the cuffs emitted a faint white glow, as she seemed to bump into an invisible wall. 

"I amend myself; she has raised her voice seventeen times." The white-haired girl amended, blinking owlishly at the other others. The blonde girl just rolled her eyes, clearly tired of this regular event. 

"Ah you saw that there? That wall has prevented me from jumping straight out of this cart like ten times! I've taken to calling it the 'Glass Ceiling'". 

Ruby's head stirred with the returning of her headache at the antics of her peers. 

"Suppose we could at least introduce ourselves before we get too far along here?" She tried reason to the group. Clearly, they were not going to give her any of the answers she needed, but that didn't mean she wouldn't be able to glean anything from them. "I'm Ruby, and my Scythe's called 'Cooler Looking Than The One In Soul Eater'". 

"Ah where are my manners?" The blonde exclaimed. "I'm Girl Who Skinned The Narnia Lion And Pretends It's Her Natural Hair. And I use a sword called 'Her Axe'." 

"I'm Emo Cat Grill! But don't go using my name too often now!" The Neko insisted. "My guns are called 'Dez' and 'Troy'". 

"I am Badass Lesbian With The White Hair" The last girl called with a serene and dreamy tone. "I counter my foes with my strikingly similar appearance to Emilia." 

The others dead stared her but commented no further. 

"Well then..." Ruby wasn't quite sure how to continue with the others. The only things that she clearly knew was that they we being held prisoner under suspicion of stealing something she doesn't even remember trying to steal, their ability to counter their foes were clearly restricted by these cuffs, and finally that her apparent team mates were clearly not going to be too helpful for their mission. 

Looking towards the head of the cart she realizes the cart driver has yet to turn around and prevent them from speaking to each other or otherwise acting as any other under payed guard 

“Ah you noticed that too? I don’t think anyone can hear us. It’s as if we’ve been captured in a spirit bag.” Girl Who Skinned The Narnia Lion And Pretends It's Her Natural Hair chimed in noticing where Ruby was looking. She stepped towards her and stood to her left, eyes his back too. “I’m guessing that’s how they grabbed us. They found us as our most vulnerable and simply opened the trapping tag.” 

She paused and pensively crossed her arms. He food tapped on the wooden boards, clacking with each hit from her hard-heeled boots. 

“Actually, you seemed to be particularly out of everything. Do you really not remember what you were doing out here?” She mused. 

“I truly don’t...,” Ruby trailed off. Her head hurt just from trying to connect the memories. “But... suppose I came for the ritual that Emo Cat Grill mentioned earlier. Could you tell me more about that?” 

“Ah, I truly apologize about that. We got a bit side tracked earlier. Allow me to explain now.” Girl Who Skinned The Narnia Lion And Pretends It's Her Natural Hair. “Well I should start with the infamous Headmaster. He has been the ruler of this swamp for hundreds of years now. Rumor has it, he was once an Academy Person like the rest of us, but he ran himself to exile since then. As you know, Academy and the Headmaster’s army have been at war for the past few years now, but lately it’s become more and more violent. Anyone caught at the border, or ‘Binary’ as it is termed by people in Academy, are immediately captured by guards of either side of the war.” 

She sniffs and nods her head towards the driver. “Clearly, we have been captured by the Headmaster’s guards.” 

“I see, thank you for that recap.” Ruby politely responded to the other. It was helpful information to digest but it still didn’t explain why she was in the region. She had never been a soldier for either side, and most defiantly was not a medic. 

“Well of course, but it is the ritual that is the most prized goal of this war. Frankly, it is the main reason for nonmilitary prisoners of war here. They call it the Cure. It is said that is it able to cure people of their Dysphoria. My goal is to track it down. And I would assume it is the same for these guys over here.” 

The two in the back payed no mind to the two in the front, seemingly haven once again created discord among themselves. 

*** 

Beyond the cart had traveled for some time. They had taken to sitting in silence, or in the case of Emo Cat Grill, pointedly ignoring everyone else. Somehow Badass Lesbian With The White Hair had managed to fall asleep despite the situation. 

Ruby had taken to searching though all her pockets. Despite being kept prisoner she was amazing how little the guards had done to disarm them. She defiantly realized that some vital survival tools were missing from her person if it was correct to assume that she had been traveling through this wasteland. However, she had what appeared to be a charm, a small multitool with dull blades and chipped flint, and unraveled medical gauze. 

None of the items were particularly noteworthy, but she would count her blessings and appreciate she had not been stripped of everything she owned. The buzz of civilization wafted from the front of the cart. Turing her head forward she began to see the smoke from village huts in the distance. 

“We are arriving somewhere it appears,” She calls out to the other girls. “If you have anything grab it before they actually disarm us for sure.” 

“Ah thank you,” Girl Who Skinned The Narnia Lion And Pretends It's Her Natural Hair replied as she removed herself from her lazy docile position. Her face twisted into a slight frown at the situation, but appeared otherwise relaxed. “This is probably the location of our execution spot.” 

“You say this so casually!” Emo Cat Grill exclaimed shrilly. 

“If we die, we die as men!” Badass Lesbian With The White Hair unhelpfully chirped in. 

“Fuck you! That’s the whole point of this thing!” 

“I say it so because we’re not going to allow ourselves to be killed obviously.” Girl Who Skinned The Narnia Lion And Pretends It's Her Natural Hair wrinkled her nose in distaste at the bickering. “We clearly all have weapons;” she pauses catching eyes with Badass Lesbian With The White Hair. “...Clearly most of us have weapons. The transporting from the shackles in the cart and the executioner’s block is the most vulnerable part of the process. The whole wall business is because the shackles clearly recognize the sides of this cart as a boarder. They won’t be able to recognize any sort of wall to establish because there wouldn’t be a wall surrounding a small town like this.” 

It sounded reasonable to Ruby, but anxiety tugged at her consciousness. She really felt as though she was missing something vitally important, but her mind could not piece together the missing information. A ball of anxiety created tightness in her chest at this vulnerability. She senses were alert of her captor, already understanding that he was clearly a threat. She supposed she had reason to trust the other girls considering they had admitted to being thieves. But, following that logic, it appears she is also a thief. 

This memory issue was truly too problematic! 

Helplessly she gave up trying to reason through her mind. 

And all too soon the cart had entered the village bounds. It was a simple outskirt town build mostly of log and stone. The asymmetrical neighborhood quarters suggested the lack of planning in the construction of the city center. But the town looked lively enough for its petite size. 

Perhaps at one point this place might have been an unremarkable spot in the middle of a hot swamp but in times of war it had been taken over as an outpost by the Headmaster’s people. Although it appeared personnel was not particularly strong, there were definitely more iron clad fellows than usually for such a township. 

But a grim atmosphere descended on the ville as the cart swept down dirt roads. The pedestrians’ eyes the cart in quiet distaste but remained respectfully silent as if to say they have enough respect to not torment prisoners on death row. It seemed they had already resigned themselves to being the location of the many executions of war criminals. 

“We don’t seem to be heading towards the center of town, but rather to a designated execution spot considering we had taken a few turns. Perhaps it’ll be on the side of a prison.” Girl Who Skinned The Narnia Lion And Pretends It's Her Natural Hair muttered under her breath, seemingly talking more to herself than to the others. “This can work to our advantage because there will be less pedestrians to pass in our escape and we will spend less time in the heart of this outpost.” 

“But higher security of course,” Emo Cat Grill added. “But with my skills we should be fine.” 

“We will, of course, be sticking together will we not?” Badass Lesbian With The White Hair asked, this time lacking her typical dreamy tone. A chill ran down Ruby’s spine as unease set in her stomach. With the way she spoke it sounded more like a threat! 

“Of course, it will make our escape more probably if we have an actual unit to move with and cover each other.” Ruby assured trying to ignore the sweat drop on her forehead. 

“Well then,” Girl Who Skinned The Narnia Lion And Pretends It's Her Natural Hair addressed the group commandingly. “We must plan our escape plan.” 

She motioned for them to gather closer towards each other. Reluctantly Emo Cat Grill 

“Then what do you propose?” 

Girl Who Skinned The Narnia Lion And Pretends It's Her Natural Hair paused. 

“I actually hadn’t thought that far to be honest...” She scratched the back of her hair bashfully. 

Ruby grimaced. 

Emo Cat Grill Deadpanned stared. 

Girl Who Skinned The Narnia Lion And Pretends It's Her Natural Hair sweat dropped. 

Badass Lesbian With The White Hair smiled. 

“Aghhh!!!!” 

In the distance a flock of birds took flight from their perches in the tree due to an unknown disturbance in the air.

**Author's Note:**

> Me: *was inspired at 3 am and has a 56k 12 chapter 4 arc story planned despite me also not even knowing the character's names*  
> Also Me: "and the draft was never touched again"


End file.
